Cannondale-Drapac may head into the Tour Down Under without their Australian talisman, Simon Clarke, but the WorldTour team will still line-up with one of the best-equipped squads in this year’s race.
In Tom Jelte Slagter they have a former winner, while Michael Woods and Patrick Bevin both cracked the top ten in 2016, and with Tom Southam conducting tactics they possess one of the youngest up-and-coming directeur sportifs in the peloton.
"I'd like to think that we can put someone on the podium," he told Cyclingnews on Thursday morning as his team prepared for training.
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"Last year Woods was fifth and it was his first WorldTour race. He was very green then. He's now got a season of racing under his belt. Tom wasn't in the team last year and Paddy Bevin was tenth last year. He's come back to this race as a better rider. So a podium is a realistic possibility and that would be a success."
Cannondale merged with Drapac at the start of the year with Southam coming across as part of the deal. A relatively modest pro who surfed the Pro-Continental and Continental ranks as a rider, he has excelled as a directeur since hanging up his wheels. He steered the Drapac team to a stage win at the Tour Down Under in 2015 – the last team outside of the WorldTour to win a stage – but now finds himself with a team stacked with talent. Instead of managing the plucky underdogs, he's now charged with consistent success.
"At Drapac we were going for whatever we could get. It was a different mentality on that team although we still set the bar quite high. We came here in the first year wanting to win a stage, which was quite a lofty ambition for a Pro-Conti squad. Coming here in 2017 with Cannondale Drapac, it's very different because you need a more detailed plan and you’re dealing with legitimate winners like Tom Slagter. The difference between having a guy who has won the race to guys who were hoping to get some sort of result at some point, is massive."
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